Make Fitness and Health your Personal Pilgrimage‏

Many people go on Pilgrimages to Holy Sites and Lands, leading them to places of sacred and historical value. The goal may be to find peace about a recent troubling event, to seek guidance for a big decision, or to refresh with a spiritual connection to God.

Striving to be more in tune with your fitness and wellness can be a pilgrimage of sorts that can help to facilitate a spiritual experience, healing, and direction in your life. Trusting your Body-Mind and the message it brings through fitness and health can be a rewarding experience.

Here are 3 things you can do to make Fitness and Health your Personal Pilgrimage:

1. Prepare for deeper meaning, beyond just getting in shape and feeling good. Start a journal, reflecting on what has drawn you to embark on a fitness and health pilgrimage and what you hope to find, experience, or achieve through the process. Other ways to prepare yourself could be to read fitness and health books , blogs, social media posts and magazines with encouraging articles; from real people just like you, who have changed their lives through fitness and health.

2. Relate your fitness goals to a passion, or something that gives you abundant joy and happiness. I always like to do a wellness exercise in my Lifestyle Insights system with people where they discover their true motivation and hot buttons. Start by listing something positive in your life that you'd be doing better or simply just doing if you reached one of your primary fitness and health goals. (might be more quality time with kids, volunteering somewhere, having more energy to do hobbies, etc.). After you write it down, then list another something positive in your life that you'd be doing or experiencing based on realizing your previous answer. Keep going though this exercise and try to write down up to 10 things on how your life would be different and better through health and fitness. By the end, you just might discover why you were meant to be on this earth!

3. Be ready for the unexpected. As you optimize your fitness and health on your pilgrimage, there may come a day when you feel like you are a completely new person. That in shape, boundless energy, joyful and happy person that you always imagined is now you (or you feel like you were say...20 years ago when you were younger and more optimistic ). At this point, you'll be more creative, more confident, more in tune with your body-mind. I can't tell what you'll find, but I know it's going be incredible, worthwhile, and have very deep meaning!

I'm a local Health and Fitness Coach and Active Travel Specialist. I've been kickin' around NoHo for years getting involved in our community and charity projects, helping people with their wellness goals, and organizing and leading active excursions throughout LA and the world. I love this community and really enjoy blogging about all the things we do together and tips to keep us fit !